Mikhail Gorbachev meets with President Reagan, Dec. 7, 1987

On this day in 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Washington for his third summit meeting with President Ronald Reagan and the first one in the United States. As at previous summits, the main topic was further reductions in the Soviet and U.S. strategic nuclear arsenals.

On the eve of the Soviet’s leader’s visit, U.S. officials told reporters that, in addition to arms control, they wanted to talk with Gorbachev about Afghanistan — the last Soviet troops left two years later — and the Kremlin’s human rights stance.

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After alighting from an Ilyushin-62M jetliner onto a maroon carpet at Andrews Air Force Base, Gorbachev said he looked forward to signing a ready-to-go treaty that called for elimination of both nations’ land-based medium- and short-range nuclear missiles. “We have what to say to the American leaders...” Gorbachev said, “and we are hoping that we will hear some new words on their side.”

Secretary of State George Shultz and his wife, Helena, greeted Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, on the airport apron. A black Zil limousine with Moscow license plates ferried Gorbachev to the capital. To mark his arrival, Soviet flags were hung from light poles outside the White House.

In the meantime, Gennadi Gerasimov, the spokesman for the Soviet foreign ministry, told some 5,000 journalists from around the world at a vast joint United States-Soviet press center that his country would consider the summit meeting successful if “we prepare ground for the American president to come to Moscow next year to sign the second treaty of strategic arms.”

Standing beside Gerasimov, Marlin Fitzwater, Reagan’s press secretary, said, “The president approaches this summit with a sense of realism, a sense of promise.”